Today's News

ICGA MEMBER UPDATE TO THE MARCH 1 RINS CALL TO ACTION

Tricia Braid

Your Illinois Corn Growers Association board and staff are diligently working with the National Corn Growers Association, other state corn organizations and industry leaders to address this serious situation regarding White House level talks that could potentially lead to a cap on RINs (Renewable Identification Number) prices.

Here’s a rundown of the key points on this issue:

NCGA, along with American Soybean Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, and other commodity organization partners, sent a letter to the President outlining our concerns.

Corn grower association leadership met privately with Secretary Perdue before he addressed the General Session of Commodity Classic on Wednesday this week.

Thursday, all the Presidents and CEOs of the commodity associations partnering to host Commodity Classic discussed further with the Secretary at breakfast about how manipulating the market for RINs with a price cap would dismantle the RFS.

We are using Facebook, Twitter and all available communication channels to convey our message to the Administration. Please share our posts and include a personal comment. Use the tweets emailed to you previously, or consider these to President Trump.

President @RealDonaldTrump - Let the RIN market work because it means jobs for ethanol plant workers, my farm family and our country. #holdtheline

President @RealDonaldTrump – Fix the RVP and other regulatory barriers to ethanol market access and the RINs will work on their own to bring down prices. #holdtheline

We have been monitoring the situation around the White House meetings that occurred earlier in the week and yesterday. IL Corn has been engaged in high-level talks on the outcomes of these meetings and in strategizing content and messaging for the White House meeting we expect next week. NCGA has been in regular contact with Iowa Senators Grassley and Ernst who attended these meetings.

Ethanol production uses 30 percent of the U.S. corn crop. With farm incomes at a 12-year low, now is not the time to be backing away from critical value-added markets. It is a serious situation. We need all markets, which means we need the RFS to stand as written, and that means we do not accept any deal brokered by Senator Cruz that represents oil interests, capping RINs prices. We are engaged in every manner possible - and hope you will too. Stay tuned and get informed! Additional action alerts on this issue may be coming.

YOU’RE A GO FOR FALL N

Given the most recent soil temperatures from the Illinois State Water Survey and the outlook for ongoing colder weather.